


Go save the world, I'll be around

by Marishna



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Claudia Stilinski, Gen, Superheroes, The Hale Fire, Young Stiles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-21
Updated: 2015-02-21
Packaged: 2018-03-14 08:05:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3403103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marishna/pseuds/Marishna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Growing up Stiles and Scott pretended to be all manner of fictional characters.  They were always on the same team, never against each other and they always won.  Always.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Go save the world, I'll be around

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the bingo square "childhood hero" for a challenge at beacon_hills on LJ.

Growing up Stiles and Scott pretended to be all manner of fictional characters. They were always on the same team, never against each other and they always won. Always.

Scott was often Spiderman, a kid who went from being geeky and near-invisible to saving the day, every day. 

 Stiles liked to be Batman. He was a normal guy who used his wealth to help his city, even if he didn’t always go about it the “right” ways. 

Even as a kid Stiles had some moral grey areas, it seemed.

He knew his dad had an important job, knew sometimes it was hard on him. They didn’t tell Stiles any hard truths about his work, still too young to carry those burdens just yet. That didn’t mean Stiles wasn’t kind of aware, though.

The vents in their house were incredibly good sound conductors and Stiles knew which steps creaked by the time he was five and could avoid the noisy ones like a ninja. So when his dad returned home far past his regular bedtime, far past even his mother’s bedtime, Stiles was ready.

He crept down the stairs when he heard the back door open, trying not to wake the household that wasn’t even sleeping. Claudia was waiting in the kitchen for him with a hot cup of decaf coffee which John accepted gratefully. He drew her into him, despite his sooty uniform and blackened face, buried himself into her neck for a long moment.

“How bad?” She asked when they finally settled around the table.

“The two older kids were at school at an event. One was pulled out, an uncle I think. But the rest…”

Stiles tip toed along the wall and peeked around the corner just enough so he could see his father hunch over with his head buried in his hands and Claudia running a soothing one down his back. Stiles could smell the smoke and char from his father’s uniform from where he stood.

“If we had a local dispatch center, or another ambulance maybe we could’ve… Or if I—“

“No, John,” Claudia said softly, cupping his face so he could look at her. “You can’t do this to yourself. Sometimes terrible things happen, we know that as well as anyone.”

Stiles watched his mother try to comfort his father and that it didn’t help; that he was crying even though Stiles couldn’t see the tears.

He ran back upstairs as quietly as possible, just the way he descended. He closed his bedroom door and grabbed his pencil crayons from his desk. 

He turned on his desk lamp and worked as quickly and diligently as possible, trying to draw his dad as carefully as he could. He wasn’t as detailed as Scott would be, or as precise as Lydia always is but he was proud of what he came up with.

He listened at the door until his parents finally made their way up the stairs, Claudia urging John that he needed to sleep the whole way. He crept back down the stairs and made his way to the kitchen where his dad’s jacket was. He folded up the paper and put it in the pocket, then rushed back to his bedroom. 

It took a while for him to fall back asleep.

***

The next day Stiles and his mom stopped by the station to drop dinner off for John. He was going to be working longer nights on a new case that was going to be a hard one, Claudia explained to Stiles. Stiles nodded and didn’t let on that he already knew.

John looked up at them in surprise when they approached his desk and hugged Claudia a little longer and tighter than usual, then Stiles, too. They didn’t stay long, just enough to drop off the plate and say hi to the other deputies, but before they turned to leave John held Stiles at the shoulder and held him back. Claudia smiled, “I’ll meet you at the car, honey.”

“What’s up?” Stiles asked. John stared down at his son, as if he was trying to think of something to say.

Finally he crouched down and hugged Stiles again, tighter than before and kissed his cheek. Over his dad’s shoulder Stiles could see the drawing he’d done the night before, hanging on the wall right beside John’s computer. 

The picture of his dad, with a cape and a mask just like Batman’s, standing in front of a house on fire and holding hands with two kids.


End file.
